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Hope this finds you well and staying warm! As you may have heard there has been quite a bit of snow in the Elk Valley and South Country recently. Due to the amount of snow at the campground the Spring Lock is on the gate so no vehicles are permitted on site currently (you may park at the gate and walk in). Additionally, remember that NO snowmobiles or ATVs are permitted in the campground either.

Wishing a Happy New Year to all our Koocanusa family! Be sure to watch this page or subscribe to the blog (in sidebar) for the latest updates. Thank you.

Thanks to everyone for their understanding and cooperation yesterday. For the latest information on local closures and forest fires a good place to visit is the Regional District of the East Kootenay’s facebook page and their recent post.As of last night and currently today, boating is allowed on Lake Koocanusa once again. However, boats must be launched from private land or Kikomun Creek Provincial Park only and are only allowed on the water… you may not pull up to or disembark on any Crown Land. Vehicles, recreating and camping are prohibited on all Crown Land in the East Kootenays.

In other news, our 30th Anniversary Celebrations are taking place here at the campground today as planned. So come out and join us for Bouncy Castles and Kids’ Karaoke from 2 – 4pm, all day/night Burger Special (basic Cheeseburger & Taber corn for $5) and Live Music with WOMP tonight for our Parking Lot Dance from 7:30pm onwards. Our store is open 9am – 9pm today and the beach is open for swimming.

Can you believe we’re nearing the end of August already? Hope everyone has had a great summer at the lake, it’s been hot and beautiful one. Just wanted to send along a few updates for late summer/early fall here at the campground.

30th Anniversary Koocanusa Hoodies:
Now available for pick-up and payment at the store (for those who have pre-ordered) and available in limited quantities while supplies last for those interested in getting one.

Winterizing etc.:
If you are interested in getting your boat shrink wrapped and winterized please call Dan at Koocanusa Boatworx at 250-946-6280 Dan will also be offering winter snow removal. Please contact him to make arrangements if you’re interested in these services.

Fire Safety/Message for Boaters from the Regional District of the East Kootenay (RDEK):
If a boater gets in the way of an air tanker, helicopter or other firefighting aircraft, the incident will be investigated by the Ministry’s Compliance and Enforcement Branch, the Conservation Officer Service and/or the RCMP. Under the Wildfire Act, the person responsible could face a violation ticket fine of $1,150 or an administrative penalty of up to $100,000. The person could also be charged with an offense under the Wildfire Act, which carries a maximum fine of $100,000. They go on to say that if recreational boaters interfere with fire suppression activities on Moyie Lake, Lake Koocanusa and Premier Lake, the BC Wildfire Service could implement an area restriction that would ban all watercraft from those lakes.

Should aircraft of any type need Lake Koocanusa for fire suppression—please respect that and move out of the way.

Have a good week and we hope to see you back at the lake before the season is out.

Hope you had a great weekend at the lake or wherever you were. Just a quick note to let you know we’re almost out of our initial 30th Anniversary Hoodie order and will be placing our special order soon. If you would like one of our 2017 Hoodies please come to the store to let us know the colour (Royal Blue or Dark Heather [Dark Grey]) and the size(s) that you’d like. We’re taking prepayment for these hoodies and will be placing the order on Mon. July 17th so please come place your order by Sunday, July 16th.

Looking for something different to do at the lake this summer? Then join local Elko artist Ilona Webster for her Paint n’ Sip Evening here on the deck on Thurs. July 27th at 6:30pm. You’ll learn to paint the sunflower shown here and all the paint/supplies you’ll need are included in the $40 fee. If you would like more info or would like to sign up, please email Ilona at shaynew1@telus.net or call her at
(1) 250-529-7752.

Remember, a campfire ban is in effect for our region, for more info on that please see previous post. And our well is really working hard during this heat wave so please be conscientious of that by keeping water use to a minimum and not watering plants/flowers (see previous post.)

Thank you, have a great week and we’ll see you at the lake again soon.

Please take note of the following notice from the BC Wildfire Service and the Southeast Fire Centre:

Effective at 1pm Mountain Time today on Friday, July 7, 2017, campfires will be prohibited throughout the Southeast Fire Centre to help prevent human-caused wildfires and protect public safety. For more details on this prohibition, please click here. Fore more details about other prohibitions in B.C. please visit gov.bc.ca/wildfirebans Specifically, prohibited activities once the campfire ban takes effect will include:

Effective immediately absolutely NO watering of vegetable plants, flowers or lawns. Our well is struggling to keep up with this heat wave and lack of rain.

If you wish to water you are welcome to use lake water that you haul yourselves.

Please help us conserve water so that the well can keep up.

Please, small fires only at this time. Remember to have your spark screen in place. With this extended heat wave forests throughout southern BC and in our region are very dry. There is currently a fireworks ban in place and we will let you know here as soon as we know if/when a campfire ban is in effect.

Another reminder — please don’t leave large cardboard boxes at the garbage cans — these should be taken to the recycle station at Baynes Lake or Jaffray. We would appreciate your cooperation as we are only hauling household garbage.

Thank you for your attention to these matters and enjoy your time here in the summer sunshine at Koocanusa.